Tag Archive: Math

I did this assignment for my Theory of Knowledge teacher, at 3 AM, in about 15 minutes. I wonder what I got on it?

Truth: TOK

The famous poet Oscar Wilde once said “Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.” In my personal opinion, I believe that truth can come from science as well as religion. Children all over the world are taught the most current truth every single day, through the medium known as education.

Mathematics is a very logical subject. That is, if one chooses to stay with numbers, and not deviate to anything else. To many people, mathematics is the epitome of truth in education; one plus one will always equal two, no matter the circumstances. However, a memorable example that I have heard states that “one plus one makes a baby, which equals three.” As far as logical truths are concerned, mathematics does an excellent job in conveying them to the mass public. The laws of mathematics have been proven many times during the course of history, by mathematicians ranging from Archimedes to Fibonacci, and continue to be proven by students all over the world. Mathematical laws only change to encompass new findings; they do not break down completely, or become obsolete once new calculations come to light.

Biology, the study of life, is naturally expected to provide the public with a measure of the truth. We now know the true reasons for our ailments, viruses and bacteria to name a few, as opposed to the past ideologies of evil humours residing within the body. Biology is a rapidly changing science, which adapts itself to new findings almost on a daily basis. However, this does not mean that the laws of biology will disintegrate once new findings are made public. Laws such as Darwin’s Theory of Evolution will remain constant throughout time, unless someone can prove the existence of God, and from there, provide the truth behind a Creation myth. To people in the past, even in the 20th century, common old wives’ tales provided the basis for their medical truths. As an example, many medieval doctors believed that “bleeding” the patient through the use of leeches would lessen the pressure of the humours inside their head, thus alleviating their headache. To these doctors, this practice was the truth, as it seemed to work when it was applied numerous times. We now know that this would have reduced the blood pressure in the head of the patient, which may have caused a brief cessation of pain. Different practices such as this were common truths for medieval healers, and have adapted into the truths we know today. They did not disappear completely; they were changed in order to fit with the new research that is constantly being conducted.

History is one subject in which the facts are undeniable. In most cases, there is a plethora of evidence to prove that the event either occurred or did not occur. Eye-witness accounts, journal entries, historical books, video reels, audio recordings, have all helped to shape our knowledge of our own past. However, to quote Winston Churchill, “History is written by the victors.” The knowledge that we receive in our old texts may be completely false, as they could have been written by the winners of a war, who proceeded to destroy all of their enemy’s texts. Even within a subject with such a vast resource base, discrepancy exists. For example, some sources state that Grigori Rasputin, after being poisoned and shot, drowned in a river, while others state that he died of hypothermia, while still others state that he died of pneumonia. Though these causes of death do not differ greatly, it proves that we may never know the real truth of our pasts. Though we have the resources to provide us with all the information we need, we have no way of knowing which one of the sources is the real truth, or if they all are. It is perfectly possible for Rasputin to have contracted pneumonia before his death, become hypothermic by falling into a river, and then drowning after he fell unconscious in the late stages of hypothermia. The real truth may always remain a mystery to modern day historians.

Once upon a time, religion was the truth for most people on the planet. Once your Supreme Pontiff said the Universe revolved around the Earth, that became the truth, no matter how much scientific evidence mounted against that theory. In fact, criticizers of the Catholic Church were often burned as heretics, simply because they had their own opinion of the truth. There are Biblical references to the immobility of the Earth, such as Psalm 104:5, which states “the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.” Because of statements such as these, the Catholic Church’s belief that the universe was geocentric was widely accepted. In fact, when Galileo Galilei contradicted the Church’s “truths” in 1632, he was convicted of heresy and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

The “truths” that are present in religions are often false. At the very least, they seem false to us because we do not have the capability to scientifically explain some aspects of religion. It is for this same reason that many people believe wholeheartedly in these religious truths. Some of these truths may never be fully explained through science, and it will be left for future generations to decide whether these statements by religions are really truths at all.